And in that deep sea of endless streams and notifications and other dopamine-releasing distractions, getting your offer seen can be challenging to say the least.

Luckily, overlays can help mute some of that background noise by focusing your visitor’s attention on one (hopefully) compelling offer.

But your job doesn’t end there.

Once you get your prospect’s attention with an overlay, it’s your job to use design and copywriting best practices to keep their interest.

What are these best practices I speak of? Let’s take a look at some overlay examples we spotted in the wild for some concrete examples of what you should — and shouldn’t — do.

Be immediately clear on the value of your offer

I have to admit that when I first saw this overlay, I found the tongue-in-cheek copywriting delightful.

The headline was clever and had me nodding my head:

And while the self-aware overlay is a cute idea, you know what’s less cute? Just how quickly your prospect will look for that “x” button if the value of the offer isn’t abundantly clear.

Don’t make readers work to find out what your offer is. It’s fine to be cutesy, as long as you’re explaining what’s in it for them. See how Groove clearly explains the benefit of signing up for their newsletter?

The transparency of this offer makes it appealing, and the specificity of Groove’s current monthly revenue adds credibility.

Pro tip: When you’re pushing a subscription, your copy has to do a lot of work because there’s no immediate value. Test including a tangible offer like a free ebook.

It’s not about you!

This overlay by the Chive has personality, but not much persuasive power:

The headline – “the best newsletter in the world” – is playful (if a little cocky), but it fails to communicate what makes the newsletter great and why readers should care.

They’re so caught up in self-praise that they forget to explain what’s in it for the reader. How will signing up for this newsletter impact the reader’s life?

This overlay by GetResponse is guilty of a similar infraction, and to be frank, the tone is a little despie:

This overlay uses “I” and “us” language without ever explaining the benefits of the offering — not to mention it never really explains what GetResponse is.

This is problematic, because the overlay appears on a page giving away an ebook only marginally related to their core offering — so it’s safe to assume that not everyone will know what GetResponse is.

I’d test an overlay that includes a compelling, customer-focused unique value proposition and a clear hero shot so people can quickly understand what they’re dealing with at a glance.

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Lead with what’s in it for them

So what does customer-focused copy look like? Preneur Marketing’s overlay leads with a headline that explains in detail what the reader will get when they sign up:

So much specificity!

But Preneur Marketing doesn’t stop there. They lay the persuasion on thick using a number of trusted devices, such as a UVP, a hero shot, a list of benefits, social proof and a single conversion goal (do these elements sound familiar?).

A great thing to test would be a hero shot representative of the actual offering, like the one in this overlay by Acquire Convert:

Use overlays to counter objections

No matter which stage of the buyer journey your prospect is at, their inner monologue will include some objections to your offer. Overlays are a great way to counter them.

For example, have a look at this overlay by Gr8fires, which appeared for visitors to their ecommerce store. They knew visitors to that page were likely shopping around for the best deals and were likely already thinking, “I don’t know how much stove installation is going to cost.”

To counter that objection, Gr8fires created an overlay with an “installation calculator” that detailed the costs associated with installing their product. See how the headline mirrors the conversation in the prospect’s head?

The results of Gr8fires’ overlay campaign were incredible: 300% increase in monthly sales leads and a 48.54% lift in sales. Image source.

This example is particularly wonderful because it accomplishes something for both the marketer and the prospect. On the prospect’s end, it delivers great value in exchange for a very small commitment (entering name and email). On the marketer’s end, it helps to educate prospects on a larger-ticket item that typically requires more convincing.

A real win-win scenario. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Don’t be a negative Nelly

If you’ve seen overlays across the web, you’ve likely noticed that “yes” button text is often juxtaposed with “no” hyperlink text in close proximity. And you’ve likely noticed that the “no” hyperlink text is often sassy.

I see this everywhere online — marketers resorting to language like:

Nobody thinks this.

Or this one:

Come on.

Don’t forget this one:

Really?

Or finally, this example, which borders on offensive:

This is getting out of hand.

It should go without saying, but you should never talk down to prospects simply because they might not want your offering.

Not only does that create friction to completing the form, it can also damage your brand’s image and credibility.

About Amanda Durepos

As Unbounce’s Blog Editor, Amanda Durepos curates and crafts content to help marketers be better at their jobs. When she’s not managing the editorial calendar for the Unbounce Blog, she’s wrangling internal and external subject matter experts, helping them educate other marketers in an entertaining and actionable way. You can follow her on Twitter but she’s mostly just making puns.

The first couple have a couple of really annoying bits that I see a lot,

1. “No one likes popups” so we’re going to throw one right in your face even though we already know you don’t like it. Gee. Thanks.

2. The passive agressive “No thanks, I’m an idiot who doesn’t want to grow their business” type close text isn’t a nice approach. Your website content may still be great and people will come back for that. There’s no need to insult someone who doesn’t want your newsletter – a simple “No thanks” to close it should always be fine.

Eh, I found the “No one likes popups” pretty clever and endearing. Then again, I’m a Wait but Why fan, so I’ve already got an appreciation for their content and style. To someone showing up without that relationship, I agree it may be obnoxious.

Totally agree about the “No I’m an idiot” style. That always puts me off any time I see it.

Amanda Durepos

haha, huge Wait But Why fan as well , and I gotta admit that I wasn’t pissed when I saw the overlay. I do think it is playful and in line with their tone. And I stopped and read the whole thing… but I am in the business of wanting to take a closer look ;)

Can’t help but wonder how many people chuckle, nod their head at the headline and close the overlay without reading the rest.

Very interesting article. I was juat thinking about pop ups like this the other day to analyze how to better implement them myself. The win-win you describe in the fireplace pop up definitely caught my attention. Prior to finishing reading the pop up I was wondering how much something like that would cost… It hit the nail on the head.

The millennial in me screams “the minute I get a pop up I’m leaving the site.” The marketer in me screams I need to make a great pop up ad…

Fantastic article, thanks! Goodness, dare I say I’ve made at least one of these errors, I’ll be updating my landing pages today! :) Really great info here, thanks for sharing.

balakrishna

I hope that it will help me in doing research and take a right decision, it will enhance our critical thinking. sometimes we fall into fix because we see something from our point of view not from reality